Strung up at Copper Mountain: Bid online now or this weekend at the ArtGuitar Silent Auction

For some of us in this errant world, it's hard to choose between a best friend and a best guitar, and if you fall in that hardscrabble category, you'll want to be up at Copper Mountain this weekend for the annual Guitar Town festival, which features big names doing axe duty onstage for free, along with guitar workshops and clinics (also free) and the concurrent Colorado Cigar and Brew Festival, which is just what it says it is. But in between the lines of all that strummin' and puffin', you'll also find the annual silent auction of artist-decorated beaters, which were kindly donated by Guitar Center for the benefit of the Copper Environmental Foundation. A few of them are already up for early bidding online (see the website for instructions); the rest will be on display at Copper. Here's a look at some of those artsy axes.

Dunn the Signtologist: Dunn, who is known for his artwork on discarded street signs, turns to the wood for this rendering of the young Bob Dylan. Bid for this one online now.

Jymi "Zez" Shores: Ahoy, musical pirates! This two-sided watercolored beauty by a Newspeak tattoo artist is called Burial at Sea. Also available for online bidding.

Kamla Presswalla: Presswalla went with a mysterious mando theme to create this beautiful take on a folksy Mona Lisa.

Tony Zellaha: Tony goes whimsical with a guitar that seems to be sprouting colorful worms.

Pat Gerace: Gerace tickles the face of this beater with a retro country-western theme.